31 August 2005

Trailertown: Overpopulation

Hey guys, it's Donnie...Today is moving day for me. I'm leaving the apartment that has been my home for the past two years, "My First Apartment". We had some good times...

Anyway, because of that, I'm only here at work for half the day and I probably won't get the chance to write anything tomorrow, so in the meantime I'm gonna leave you with SIX trailers to Martin Mull over. Four of these...well, holy crap we've got some good stuff in store for us this winter...

G: A modern "urban re-telling" of The Great Gatsby, kinda like O, the modern prep-school retelling of Othello, except while O freaked me out (probably because I went to a prep school) this one looks somewhat unremarkable. It looks to have good performances from the two male leads, Richard T. Jones and Blair Underwood, but that's about it. I'm kinda interested to see just how far it strays from Gatsby.

North Country: Charlize certainly seems to be gunning for that second little gold statue, but I wouldn't bet on it with this one. I'm sure she'll do a fine job, but the movie really doesn't strike me as all that interesting. In fact, the only thing about the entire trailer that made me sit up and take notice was when Woody Harrelson suddenly showed up in the middle of it.Click it here to wish you were Norma Rae or Karen Silkwood...

Okay, here comes the meat and potatoes:

Capote: One of two upcoming biopics about author Truman Capote, this is the one to watch for, mostly because of Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The movie looks to be pretty solid, but ultimately it's gonna be his performance that's going to make or break the flick. I like what I see, but ultimate judgement will probably have to wait until we see the whole flick.Click it here to be better than Greg Kinnear...

Memoirs Of A Geisha: I've been waiting for this flick to come out since forever. I haven't read the book, but the author, Arthur Golden, is the father of a friend of mine, and he's one of the smartest, kindest people I've ever met, as is the rest of his family. It looks like Rob Marshall really delivered the goods on this. Zhang Ziyi seems born to play this role, and it'll be nice to see Michelle Yeoh working again. This type of flick isn't typically my cup o' tea, but I'll definitely be lined up for this one. This is also a fantastic trailer, although it's officially the Japanese trailer, so I expect we in the states will get a slightly different version.

Goodnight and Good Luck: Holy crap. This thing is going to kick 14 kinds of ass. It's beautifully shot, seriously well acted and also seriously important. If nothing else, it might serve to remind the America public what it is the journalism profession should be, could be. I knew this was gonna be good, but...goddamn. The choice to use actual McCarthy footage is pretty much genius, and I really like the feel of this trailer. It's very reminiscent of the V For Vendetta trailer in the sense of heightened atmosphere. I want to watch this tomorrow.